Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Milestone day.

Today is my 400th post. Yesterday, visitor 27,000 showed up, somebody from the Polaroid company checking in on what was said about the discontinuation of instant film. But another number is much more important today. It's my mom's birthday. After a certain age, it's not polite to mention the exact age of a woman, so let me just say this.

Spirit. Trombones.

If you get my drift.

In honor of my mom's birthday, I am publishing some family photos my brother Michael sent to me. Here is my father as a young and carefree man before the burdens of paternity have set in.

Run, man! Run for your life!

I kid. Being the dad of this brood wasn't all bad, as this quiet moment between my mom and dad will attest.

Here is my brother Michael, the sharer of this treasure trove of nostalgia, looking nothing at all like Alfred E. Neuman. His eyes are straight and his hair's not red and his ears aren't anywhere near as sticky out as the Mad Magazine icon, so there.

See? Give him a better haircut and a nice snack to eat, and he's a good looking guy. Here he is with my sister Kimberly. If the photos in our albums are to be trusted, the Hubbard family spent almost no time at all indoors.

That's Kim again in the background, and Karla, regular commenter here at Lotsa 'Splainin', in the foreground. Since this picture is in color and there's an American flag and the ice cream making machine is out, I am going to assume this special shot is from a Fourth of July celebration. When I was a kid, I thought this was a national holiday celebrating my Grandma Hubbard's birthday.

Here's the baby of the family Jennifer, not completely certain that this whole "family snapshot" craze is really going to be so popular a few years from now.

And since it's my blog, the last picture is of me. Karla sent this picture to me with the caption "Heil Matthew!", but for the record, I think I look more like Moe Howard in that haircut than Adolph Hitler. Moreover, there is no recorded evidence that Hitler ever wore paisley, so there!

And all this family silliness is my way of saying happy birthday to my mom, the person most responsible for this mob.

Thanks to all for wishing my mom a happy and the nice comments about my nice family. Reading Steve Martin's book, I'm starting to believe none of us had enough nastiness in our lives to make it to the big time in show bidness.